Valynne E. Maetani

Valynne E. Maetani is an American young-adult author whose debut novel, Ink and Ashes, follows a teenager uncovering her late father's connections to the Yakuza; the book won the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature in the Young Adult category and was a Whitney Award finalist. She later co-wrote Seven Deadly Shadows (2020) with Courtney Alameda, a fantasy novel steeped in Japanese mythology in which a shrine maiden must recruit seven mortal champions of the gods to prevent a demon king's return. Maetani's fiction consistently draws on Japanese-American heritage and mythology, blending contemporary coming-of-age storytelling with elements of thriller and fantasy across her small but award-recognized body of work.